The MA5B Individual Combat Weapon System, abbreviated MA5B ICWS and commonly known as the MA5B assault rifle, is a standard-issue service rifle for the UNSC Marine Corps and the Navy. It is produced by Misriah Armory as part of its MA5 Series.

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The MA5B Assault Rifle is an air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed, fully-automatic bullpup rifle that fires 60 rounds of 7.62×51mm ammunition. It possesses a built-in ammunition indicator and magnetic compass for orientation similar to that of all other MA5 series rifles.

The MA5B in both offensive and suppressive situations remains one of the UNSC's most reliable weapon. When fired in short bursts, or even single shots, there is a significant increase in accuracy, and the rifle's armor penetrating ability makes it key for handling even the toughest of infantry, having the ability to kill an Elite in about 45 rounds in close quarters. The MA5B rifle is effective at killing light armored infantry at close-to-medium range, and the high rate of fire combined with the high ammunition capacity allows its user to spray the whole area with suppressing fire. The MA5B also gives the user an ammo count on its digital readout, as well a compass pointing toward the arbitrary magnetic "north" position. In the hands of someone who can control their trigger finger, the MA5B becomes a deadly weapon in CQB situations.

The MA5B is not without disadvantages, its main disadvantage being its horrible accuracy when fired at a range of more than forty meters. At that range, enemy infantry may be hit by a few bullets, or not be hit by any bullets at all. The MA5B Assault Rifle performs poorly against energy shields unless firing on full automatic at close range without giving a shielded infantry time to cover. In comparison to modern assault rifles it can be more related to an oversized sub-machine gun, as it is underpowered and lacks the ability to select a fire mode.

Robert McLees at Bungie has compared the basic design of the MA5B to that of the Fabrique-Nationale FN F2000. According to The Art of Halo, McLees did not know of the F2000 until after the game was even finished; "I don't know when the images of the FN F2000 appeared, but I didn't see them until three or four months after the game shipped, and I thought 'Oh great. Now everyone's going to think I swiped the design from Fabrique National.' It was surreal to see how close the Halo assault rifle was to its real-life counterpart... and it was all totally by accident."

There is a second melee animation for the MA5B, in which the user holds the weapon vertically and clubs anyone in front of them with the back end of the weapon. This animation is used in a few Halo Custom Edition maps, but was taken out of the official game. This animation is similar, if not identical, to the melee animation used for the M90 CAWS.

In Halo: Combat Evolved and Anniversary, the gas giant Threshold is considered arbitrary north by the MA5B's compass.

In early builds of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the MA5B used the MA37 assault rifle's model as a placeholder.[2][3] The final game uses the MA5C's model from Halo 3. Although the MA5B and MA5C are largely identical, this means that the MA5B's sloped electronics cowling is conspicuously absent.